It’s official: Crist’s lead squandered

Voters need only remember, Crist is the guy who supported the stimulus before he didn’t when considering who is the credible candidate in this race.

Look for a hard move to the right by Charlie

By Chris Ingram

Voters are apparently paying attention to Florida’s U.S. Senate race and that is good news for candidate Marco Rubio who is now tied in a dead-heat with Charlie Crist who has squandered his lead by acting like a Democrat and showing zero leadership on important issues.

According to the Rasmussen Report, “A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.”

Expect the Crist campaign to go into full panic mode after the first of the year. Signs of the campaign’s desperation will include: Crist moving to the right to appeal to GOP Primary voters; smear tactics against Rubio lead by Crist surrogates; attacking Rubio’s conservative credentials; the politics of personal destruction; and in typical Crist fashion, flat-out lies about Rubio.

Voters need only remember, Crist is the guy who supported the stimulus (before he didn’t) when considering who is the credible candidate in this race.

Rubio’s key to victory requires: maintaining and expanding his base of support among likely Republican Primary voters; keeping pace with fundraising by not going below a 2:1 disadvantage; not allowing himself to get painted by Charlie as a “right-wing” extremist (which he is not); appealing to female voters; and running his campaign like a business (responsive, transparent, efficient, etc.) and not like a government agency (unresponsive, inefficient, etc.).

Sorry Charlie…

You can read the full report and access top-line results of the survey by visiting Rasmussen.

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of www.IrreverentView.com. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, Front Page Florida, and National Review online. E-mail him at: Chris@411Communications.com.